Hi everyone,
Greetings from Chiang Mai!
After having a whirlwind of activity and seeing clients from the end of June through August in Ashland, I’ve returned to SE Asia and made Chiang Mai my base for now. This big buddha is looking down at the crowd up at Doi Suthep, the temple high above the mountains of Chiang Mai.
It’s rainy season here – and actually very nice to experience clouds and changing weather, as when I was here in the Spring for some pretty bad air pollution. So now I’m really enjoying even the rain! I plan on being in Asia at least until the Year of the Dragon comes (February) 🐉
The next picture is of ‘nagas’ – multi-heads of the giant protective snake that runs along the stairs up to Doi Suthep. Sometimes we can use all the protection we can get! Real truths and lasting lineages seem to find a way to enlist helpers to keep the transmission going, even in dark times.
In some ways Thailand is one of the more different societies in the world compared to ours. For a society with a market economy, that has a solid middle-class and big shopping malls, they maintain an interesting cultural continuity with the ancestors and the past and its rituals in a way we just don’t.
Part of the Thai story is that they haven’t been colonized as other countries have. They have their Thai way, which is in its own way a melting pot for different ethnic groups that make up the Thai people. Thais are famous for their smiles, and indeed Thais generally lack that anxious ‘edge’ we do. It can be nice to be around that.
Next week I have the opportunity to join with some Thai doctors and acupuncturists to visit and assist the monks at a monastery north of here.
I will continue to be available for consultation from Asia, using video conferencing. I consolidate a lot of my experience of practicing over 35 years into these sessions. Over time, I’ve found that these one-to-one of the Zoom calls can be a direct and good format, even at a distance.
In a session my advice is multi-fold and often around some kind of health remedies or lifestyle (sleep, exercise, diet), and herbal prescription. (on request, at times I’ve blended in Fate consultation (I Ching/Vedic astrology) – a side-line some clients have found of value)
Sessions are during early evening hours (PST).
A 35 minute focused session can be enough time with an ongoing client to adjust and dial in an herbal prescription and some diet advice. For more time (or if you are new) 2 concurrent sessions (60-70 minutes) is better.
Drop-shipping herbs is easy to do and quick – you may feel as though I never left!
My availability may become limited, ongoing clients will have priority.
For info or appointment:
text: 541-621-7101
email: centerforchinesemedicine@gmail.com
We have unique stories and constitutions.
In the West coast of the US we often share a similar set of health issues because of similar life-style and patterns of diet, sleep and work. And the effect of the seasons and outer environment we are in plays a major part too. After practicing continuously in Oregon for over 30 years, I’ve developed ways to work with these issues using Chinese medicine, often in conjunction with other practitioners.
The emphasis is often on seasonal adjustments to maintain health. Longevity and health are maintained by adapting to the environment we are in – Dry, Cold, Anxious, Irritable, Smoky, Sleepless. Now in Autumn I often have clients switch to using immune support herbs (like with Huang Qi/Astragulus) in preparation for the Winter. As well as helping to chose particular cold/ flu remedies to have on hand that will suit them. Customizable and individually chosen.
I feel it of highest importance to communicate the concepts of Chinese Medicine in a relatable way. The theories and methods are a totally viable and complementary approach to especially chronic conditions. Chinese herbal medicine has a world-reknown foundational energetic View of health that indeed (from its own Point of View) encompasses even modern medicine and other alternative medicine methods. It is more complex, and less discussed than Chinese acupuncture. In 2 words that need a lot of unpacking- acupuncture is about ‘Qi’ and herbs are about ‘Blood’.
Acupuncture moves, adjusts, balances ‘Qi’ – I say it kind of “rearranges the chairs on the deck of the ship”. And it can be very powerful, and very easy to use. Herbal therapy, like food, works through digestion and assimilation into the blood. And so can add something perhaps – that was not already there. The background of herbal theory is more Daoist historically as well. It starts getting really interesting when one sees that the original pharmacopeia’s were oriented around longevity, indeed immortality. And it fascinates me that some of these views were ‘bi-directional’, that human life was not necessarily a path to exhaustion and a confused old age and death.
I’m planning on presenting some kind of course. Maybe a Tuesday night group online – around understanding the Three Treasures as presented by my teacher of 30 years, Liu Ming. https://www.dayuancircle.org/products/santidao-the-way-of-th… . I’ve taught this 15 years ago at the old office, and I think I can do it better and we can learn better in these times.
Let me know if you might be interested in that.
And thanks ขอบคุณมากคร๊าบ 🙏🏼
for reading this and for so many of you giving me the privilege of having entrusted me with your care
All the best,
Ken